A day after faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail machines marred Lok Sabha bypolls in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the issue was serious and the Election Commission has to deal with it.
Mr. Gadkari, who was in the city to address a press conference on the completion of four years of the Modi government, said, “The Election Commission is an independent and impartial body that conducts polls. It is unfortunate that the machines stopped working. The Election Commission should take a serious note of it as it is the authority to inquire about such allegations. We do not support an unfair election process.”
Mr. Gadkari took a dig at the Congress and said that when the party “wins Punjab and forms the government in Karnataka, the EVMs are good. If we [the BJP] win, there is a problem with the EVMs. This is immature”. At the press conference, Mr. Gadkari made an attempt to bridge differences between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, which fought against each other in the bypoll despite being allies in the State and Central governments.
Resolving differences
The Minister said, “It is an alliance forged by the late Sena chief Bal Thackeray and the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan on the issue of Hindutva. Both parties have no ideological differences and I want the alliance to continue.” Mr. Gadkari initially said that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and BJP State unit chief Raosaheb Danve would work together to iron out the differences between the two parties ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. However, he later said that he would also would also work to broker peace. Mr. Gadkari said, “Anything can happen in politics. There are no permanent friends or enemies.”
Mr. Gadkari also welcomed former president Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to address new Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh recruits at their valedictory function in Nagpur on June 7. He said, “The RSS is not like Pakistan’s ISI. It is an organisation of nationalists. His acceptance of the invitation is a good start. Political untouchability is not good.”
Statehood for Vidarbha
Mr. Gadkari put the onus on the Congress for the creation of a separate state of Vidarbha. He said, “For the creation of a separate state, the proposal has to be passed by a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Without the support of the Congress, Vidarbha can’t be created. When we get adequate support, Vidarbha will take shape.”
Mr. Gadkari said that during the 48 months of the Modi government a lot of work was done when compared with the “48 years of the Nehru-Gandhi family rule”. He said, “We are not saying that we fulfilled all promises. But work is in progress. There is a lot to be done in the agricultural sector and we also need to reduce the prices of petrol and diesel. No one is 100% satisfied. Acche din [good days] depends on one’s belief.”
Mr. Gadkari said the State’s irrigation potential is 18% and will go up to 40% with the Centre’s support. He said the work on the Mumbai-Vadodara stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project would begin within a fortnight. The project is estimated to cost ₹1 lakh crore and the Mumbai-Vadodara stretch would cost ₹44,000 crore.
